Ruben Zacarias

Re "Fight Shapes Up as Zacarias Vows to Keep Job," Aug. 17: Cheers for Harold Williams, urging that the apparent "ugly confrontation . . . developing around [LAUSD Supt. Ruben Zacarias'] future . . . needs to be stopped." What is (really) going on when individuals, however well-intentioned, generate behind-the-scenes forces that are demonstrably diverting the school board and superintendent "from concentrating their attention on the education of our children and on the superintendent's accountability for improving student achievement"?

More than 25 years after it was envisioned, a new South Gate high school is set to open this week on property that became known for toxic contamination, contributed to the downfall of the school district's top official and then slipped from public attention. South Region High School No. 9 sparkles these days, with compact, understated modern buildings atop tons of clean, imported soil. There's hardly a reminder of the toxic legacy - until one glances across the street to the south side of the 36-acre property.

Finalists for Los Angeles' top public school post will face the community at three large open forums later this month, the school board decided Monday, adding them to eight smaller invitation-only events. The decision was unanimous, despite a rowdy protest at Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters by Latino activists and others who want to see Deputy Supt. Ruben Zacarias promoted. The job will become open at the end of June, when Supt. Sid Thompson retires.

A former Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent pleaded no contest Thursday to unlawfully displaying a badge while allegedly trying to pull a woman over in Pomona. Ruben Zacarias, 81, waved a school district police badge at a woman driving on the 57 Freeway last July and said he was a cop, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. Zacarias, who was superintendent for 2 1/2 years before being bought out of his contract by the school board in late 1999, was fined $250 and must pay a $100 restitution fee. Superior Court Judge David Brougham also ordered that the badge -- which was seized by the California Highway Patrol -- be returned to the school district, according to Deputy Dist.

Despite their protests that a Latino need not necessarily be the next superintendent of Los Angeles Unified schools, some San Fernando Valley residents are nonetheless rooting for Deputy Supt. Ruben Zacarias, the candidate of choice among Latino activists over the hill. It's not Zacarias' status as the district's highest ranking Latino that makes him attractive here. It's that he's a resident of Chatsworth, someone viewed as a potential advocate in the Valley's fight for equal recognition.

A bid to negotiate an end to Los Angeles Unified's 3-week-old power struggle appears to have failed, leading Ramon C. Cortines to say Wednesday that he is no longer interested in temporarily filling the district's top job. "I have withdrawn my name from consideration as of this morning," said Cortines, 67, renowned for navigating school districts through troubled times.

A plan to give the top four Los Angeles school administrators their second pay increase this year--without any linkage to their performance--may have stalled under severe public opposition. The raises for Supt. Ruben Zacarias and his three top deputies, tipping the combined pay hikes they have won this year to an average of almost 36%, were tentatively approved two weeks ago by the Board of Education in a 4-3 vote taken behind closed doors.

A former Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent pleaded no contest Thursday to unlawfully displaying a badge while allegedly trying to pull a woman over in Pomona. Ruben Zacarias, 81, waved a school district police badge at a woman driving on the 57 Freeway last July and said he was a cop, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. Zacarias, who was superintendent for 2 1/2 years before being bought out of his contract by the school board in late 1999, was fined $250 and must pay a $100 restitution fee. Superior Court Judge David Brougham also ordered that the badge -- which was seized by the California Highway Patrol -- be returned to the school district, according to Deputy Dist.

Amid the ethnically tinged firestorm surrounding Supt. Ruben Zacarias and the school board, the Los Angeles Unified School District postponed a Multicultural Unity Day Celebration on Wednesday. Staff members were still blowing up balloons for the annual event when Human Relations Education Commission Director Edward Negrete issued an interoffice correspondence explaining that he had no choice given the "climate of uneasiness, uncertainty."

Re "Has the Time Come to Break Up the District?" by Les Birdsall, Opinion, Oct. 24: The Los Angeles Unified School District has shown time after time that it is grossly mismanaged and that the leadership at the downtown headquarters (including Ruben Zacarias) tends to be self-serving, politically and financially motivated and totally disconnected from all the communities they serve. The time has come to beak up the district. New districts and new ideas will bring new directions. JULIA ANSLEY Los Angeles

Last fall's announcement that the nightmarishly overcrowded Los Angeles Unified School District expects to complete 85 new schools and expand 75 others within six years should be cause for celebration. As a Times editorial wistfully noted, "We want to believe." But if the past offers any indication, the district is as likely to achieve that goal as its superintendent is to fly. My skepticism stems from having seen what happened when the district tried to build just one school--on a site it already owned with funds it had committed.

Like a hero returning to his hometown, Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Ruben Zacarias spent his last day on the job Friday reading to students and counseling teachers at the modest Boyle Heights school he attended as a boy 65 years ago. "This is where it all started, and this is where I want it to end," the 71-year-old veteran said before getting down to the business of reading "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Seuss to a kindergarten class at Breed Street Elementary School.

A cascade of events that kept the headlines blazing almost continuously finally brought down the bulwarks of the city's most impenetrable bureaucracy. It began with the February disclosure that Los Angeles Unified School District officials began construction of the $200-million Belmont Learning Complex atop a former oil field without adequately assessing the dangers. Aided by Belmont outrage, a slate backed by Mayor Richard Riordan replaced three Board of Education members in spring elections.

Re Agustin Gurza's Nov. 9 column, " 'Racial Politics' to Some, Political Reality to Others": The reality is that L.A. schools Supt. Ruben Zacarias was incompetent for the job. In the two years that he has been at his post, what accomplishments has he achieved? Except being Latino. Children's test scores are still at rock bottom. No new schools have been built. And one that is being built (Belmont) and a site under consideration (South Gate) will probably never open because of toxic soil contamination.

Re "Board Buys Out Zacarias; Interim Chief Is Cortines," Nov. 5: After 26 years as a teacher/counselor with the Los Angeles Unified School District, I now know that you spell "dignity" with a $. Silly me. HELEN ARAGON San Fernando Seven hundred fifty thousand dollars! More money than I have earned in 18 years of teaching your children at the top of the wage scale, including every summer school and intersession they would give me as well as an extra period a day. For the first time in five years I'm on vacation.

In Pasadena, they still remember--and admire--the way Ramon C. Cortines stood up to the Board of Education in the aftermath of a bitter fight over court-ordered school desegregation in the late 1970s. With an archly conservative board majority attacking teachers as communists and banning books as blasphemous, meetings had to regularly be held in a junior high auditorium to accommodate crowds in the hundreds.

Anticipating walkouts at several Los Angeles schools today in protest of Proposition 227, Supt. Ruben Zacarias issued a statement Wednesday urging students not to participate in such demonstrations. "I want to appeal to students to stay in school," Zacarias said. "Proposition 227 has passed. There is nothing to be gained from walkouts and other demonstrations. Staying in school, studying hard and registering to vote is in their best interest."

It's Time to Refocus on Students This week, the Los Angeles Unified School District set in motion plans to buy out Supt. Ruben Zacarias' contract. Zacarias' removal has stirred a public debate over whether race or the allegiance of the board majority to Mayor Richard Riordan motivated the board's action. Students shared their views with MARY REESE BOYKIN. VICTORIA PRECIADO 17, senior, Dorsey High School I got a lot of mixed messages regarding Zacarias' dilemma. My inference from the media's reports was that letting Supt.

Ramon C. Cortines, a career educator who will soon become interim superintendent of the ailing Los Angeles Unified School District, said Friday he is drafting a blueprint to patch a system "hurting and hampering the children we are employed to help." The blueprint will be about "involving parents, supporting teachers and encouraging administrators to provide leadership," said Cortines, renowned for turning around ailing urban school districts. Appearing with Supt.